Before everyone gets excited about Pruitt, remember we’re going to get all the same horrific policy under Andrew Wheeler, without any of the comic, attention-drawing personal corruption. There’s no happy ending to this story — until 2020, maybe.

Somehow, Norway has ended up financing efforts to halt tropical deforestation almost single-handed. Globally, tree cover is still disappearing apace.

Environment ministers past and present told Karl Mathiesen in Oslo other donors needed to step up and join the fight.

Debt burden

Poor countries are expected to pay an extra $168 billion in interest payments over the coming decade as a result of climate risks, according to a report commissioned by the UN.

“Integrating climate risk into financial decisions is necessary, but the unacceptable logic of the markets is transferring the costs to the world’s poorest,” Simon Zadek, special advisor to the UN Environment Programme told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Flying free

China has indicated it will not join in the voluntary first phase of a scheme to offset aviation emissions, Unearthed reported.

It is a blow to efforts to curb airlines’ climate impact, but observers said it may be a negotiating tactic rather than a fixed decision.